18 months

18 months

Wes modeling one of Izzy's hair clips

Height- He was 2' 8.5" (88%) in late October, but hasn't been checked since then

Weight- 30 pounds (99%)- with clothes on at a doctor visit on December 9th

Diapers- Size 5 diapers during the day, Size 6 nighttime diapers

Playing in water at the children's museum

Milestones- Wes climbs up the stairs (holding our hands) instead of crawling and likes to go down the stairs on his butt, forward-facing. He is able to ride his tricycle a bit and getting better at climbing onto chairs and couches. He watches Izzy jump around the house and gets a tiny bit of air when he tries to jump, most of the time landing on his feet and staying upright. He pushes around step stools to get at things we put on the counters (mostly to keep away from him). He enjoys making big circles on paper with crayons.

Wes loves to hand people their things when he finds them on the floor. It is mostly Mommy's slippers and Daddy's shoes, but he will also hand Izzy her shoes, hats, etc. Pretty cute but sometimes we don't need them because we aren't going outside at that time.

Language- Words so far- uh oh, choo choo, duck, mo mo (milk), mo (more), nana (banana), down, and ball...along with tons of animal noises. The biggest word so far is MAMA because he is not saying DADA yet. I win! He also started saying no towards the end of this month. This past weekend he was constantly talking to us in gibberish.

As far as sign language goes, Wes uses the following signs: all done, eat, help, and thank you. We are currently working on please.

Hiding under the table with his new fox

Favorite Toy- A train that lights up, moves around, and makes sounds. Wes is scared to touch it, but finds it fun to watch. He will quickly move trucks and cars back and forth making sounds, something that Izzy didn't really do when she was this age.

He also likes to play "dump" which entails turning over a bag of blocks and dumping the contents out on the rug. It is very satisfying for him.

His other favorite thing is to pick up a remote, a monitor, or an actual phone and hold it up to his ear. The other night he started laughing at the monitor, so I guess he thought he was having an actual conversation?

Wes' favorite game- hiding behind the shower curtain

Wes playing his favorite game at the hospital

Favorite Book- Pout, Pout Fish. Wes likes to make the "blub" sound.

"Reading" a book by himself

Sleep- Wes is a great sleeper from about 7:30pm to 7 or 8am. He is down to one nap a day, generally starting around 12:30 and lasting for about two hours.

Bedtime routine consists of brushing teeth, getting Wes into his pajamas with a nighttime diaper, reading a few books, having Wes turn the light off and on a few times, turning on his white noise machine, then singing him two songs and putting him in his crib. He seems to like the small nightlight that we have in his room so we leave that on now and sometimes he will "read" a book in his crib or talk to himself before going to sleep.

Clothes- Solidly in 2T clothing. Size 7 shoes.

Playing nicely together

Potty training- Daycare has started to put Wes on the toilet when changing his diaper. Good for them but we are nowhere near potty training him!

Eating- Wes is getting better about using utensils and actually getting food on the fork/spoon and then into his mouth. When he is done with his food he loves to then throw everything- utensils, milk cup, food, etc. We are hoping that this is a short phase.

He also is not a fan of his bib these days and rips it off generally before he is done with eating. Also annoying.

Wes loving playing with Izzy's Moana doll because it sings 

Teeth- No new teeth this past month.

Illness- New Years Day Wes and I headed to the ER and spent a terrible night at the hospital. I'm pretty sure he gave me the RSV because I had a terrible head cold for an entire week.

Wearing Mommy's gloves to keep his hands warm

Misc- Wes had a great time during his first visit to the Field Museum seeing dinosaurs and lots of stuffed animals. He was a little scared of the stuffed bears, but walked most of the museum until he passed out in the stroller. This month he also enjoyed sledding down a small hill.

Wes is unsure of Sue at at the Field Museum

Since we spend less time outdoors these days, the kids have been running around the house most nights. Wes follows Izzy in running around and thinks that she can do no wrong. He mimics everything that she does.

Wes is ALL about Mommy these days. If I am in the room he wants to be playing with me, sitting in my lap with me reading to him, or in my arms. Often times he refuses to give a hug to CP which makes me sad. I know that he will someday soon prefer CP for a while, but it sometimes heartbreaking when I leave the room for two minutes and I hear him saying "mama" and crying because I left the room.

Staying busy since Christmas

We have certainly stayed busy since Christmas.

Working on the house

I did have to go into work the day after Christmas, but the rest of that week I took off so that CP and I could do some work around the house while the kids were at daycare. The first day was spent organizing the unfinished part of our basement- figuring out what could be taken to Goodwill, what needed a new home somewhere else in the house, what could be organized on the shelves, and what just needed to go into the garbage.

The mess that was the unfinished section of the basement

The pile of stuff to donate or throw out

Organized!

Organized stuff!

The second day we were a bit lazier as we took the kids out to breakfast and spent some time at Home Depot, but we still got a few things done. On the final day we painted parts of the basement (mostly concrete) that were untouched during our house rehab, hung out some wires for the kids to put their artwork on, and hung up two picture compilations of the kids from birth to 11 months old.

The new hallway after the house remodel....the new wall on the left got painted but other parts did not

The part that didn't get redone

New paint! Can't wait to get rid of the stairs, but that's a project to be done after we do a patio outside

Kids artwork on the wall!

Racks to organize Izzy's art supplies in the basement

Buster

One of the places I dropped off some stuff was some of Koda and Buster's stuff to the local animal shelter. CP and I decided that we aren't quite ready for another animal just yet and even then, we would like to start over with new stuff. So the shelter got dog beds, leashes, bowls, a soft cone, etc. As I was dropping the stuff off at the shelter I SO wanted to go into the back to see what kind of dogs and cats were back there to take one home, but thankfully the office was closed off from the adoptable pets so I didn't have a chance to check any out. CP and I agree that we should wait until we at least come back from our trip to CA later this month....afterwards, we'll see. We still have pictures up in a few places in the house of Buster and Koda and every so often, I just start to cry (last time was yesterday when walking upstairs to put Wes to bed....he pointed at a picture of Buster when he was just a puppy and said "arf arf.") :-(

Izzy's speech

Before Christmas and probably only one week after I wrote up Izzy's 4 year old update, she started to say the letter "s" before consonants! Her teachers in Pre-K have been working on it with her but it literally was like a light switch went off in her head one day and she came home and would slow down to say the word or correct herself. Chris and I were pretty excited because it is much easier to understand her, but we were also a little sad because it means that she is growing up so fast!

Mama!

Speaking of words, guess who is now walking around saying "mama" all the time? That's right- Wes! This is doubly exciting because he is NOT saying "dada" so I win! I kid of course but I did have three months of Izzy saying "dada" before she started to say "mama" so this is payback CP! Lol.

New Years Eve

New Years Eve was spent with friends who have an 8 year old daughter. Izzy totally looks up to her and surprisingly, they have a lot of fun together so it was a fun night. CP made Cajun food- duck gumbo, shrimp & grits, corn/tomato side dish, and a collard greens side dish. It was delicious! Our friends left around 10:30 to get their kid to bed; Izzy then went to bed (which means she was cranky the next day). I went to bed before midnight but CP came up at 11:59 to go to bed so technically we were up at midnight? :-)

Stitch Fix

I got my latest Stitch Fix this weekend and decided to cancel the service because the only thing that I kept was a necklace (mostly because it was only going to cost me $5). The clothes just don't fit right and one pair of pants the stylist sent because it is "on trend" right now. I am not an "on trend" kind of girl and could care less about that. I would rather go to Loft and buy clothes there since I seem to really like the patterns/styles and they fit me well. 

Ice skating lessons for Izzy

Izzy took beginning ice skating lessons right after Christmas and by the second night started to get the hang out getting up onto her skates after falling and gliding a little bit. She enjoyed herself so hopefully we can find some time to take her again this winter to practice her new skills.

Izzy is in the black coat

Wes in the ER

Finally, Wes decided on New Years Day, after I didn't get quite enough sleep the night before, to get sick enough to necessitate a trip to the ER. I could tell that he was having trouble breathing and he was constantly coughing so we broke out the nebulizer....which made him better for about an hour, hour and a half before he would start to take a turn for the worse again. His ped was concerned that the treatments weren't helping him for the whole four hours inbetween so off to the ER we went at 8pm where he promptly spiked a 102.3 fever and started wheezing. He tested positive for RSV and they finally got his fever down, but we ended up getting admitted for the night. Wes refused to sleep in the baby cage like last time, so around 1:45am he finally fell asleep on the twin bed with me. I didn't sleep well because throughout the night I would have to give him a breathing treatment, or the nurse would come in and need to check his breathing, etc. Thankfully he were released the next day and he only needed the nebulizer for another day before he started to get better. I most likely caught RSV from Wes and have been battling a terrible cold since then. 

Waiting in the ER with a fever

Feeling better the next day and trying to hide from me

Okay, that's probably enough for now. How has 2018 treated you so far?

2017 Results

Last year I posted my 2017 goals. How did I do? Well, it was a mixed bag.

1. Dress up more on the weekends and when I am at home. It's so easy to throw on a sweatshirt and yoga pants to do anything and everything on the weekends. I have really been trying to make an effort to dress up for dinners out with the family and to look a bit nicer in general when I go out in public. I have continued my goal of doing my hair and putting on makeup more often so the next step is my clothes. :-)

RESULT: I did a pretty good job. I have upgraded my wardrobe more and don't wear yoga pants EVERY day on the weekends. :-)

2. Continue to send paper cards to friends for their birthdays. This has been a goal for the past couple of years and I have kept it up. I know how much I love receiving mail and think that my friends would too (I do get thank yous from friends every year. They are also amazed that I remember- well, generally I don't but I use a free website called birthday-reminders.com. I input birthdays and I get an email 7 days beforehand which gives me time to buy a card and send it! (If I was smart I would buy all the cards for a year ahead of time but I like to personalize the card for each friend.)

RESULT: Success! I think that I only missed one card this year and I took Lacey's suggestion of stocking up on cards ahead of time so that I didn't have to run out for a card every time I had a birthday coming up.

3. The usual lose weight goal. I'm back at 208 but really want to be at 190 by the end of the year. I've got to do better about eating healthy- especially while I am still BF so that I can burn the extra calories!

RESULT: Big fat fail. I'm now more like 220 so now I have even more weight to lose this year. :-(

4. Part of that weight goal will include working on being more active. Right now during the week I am going from 5am to about 8:30pm (depending on when the kids get to bed). I'm not sure I have it in me to wake up before 5am to exercise. I do take Buster on walks three days a week (Sat, Sun, and my telework day), but my body is itching for MORE and HARDER exercise. This goal will get easier once I am no longer breastfeeding as I will get that time back. For now, I would like my goal to be to work out 4 days a week.

RESULT: Mixed. Starting in May I would wake up at 5am to work out a few times a week. I was doing great with running until I left for TX in November and have since fallen off the wagon. So for about half the year I was getting up early to exercise.

5. Spend more quality time with CP. I would love if we could take a trip, or even just stay overnight in downtown Chicago, just the two of us later this year. We try hard to have one date night every month- thank goodness my mom is willing and able to babysit!

RESULT: Success! CP and I got away for a weekend around his birthday to eat meals without the kids and to see Hamilton. It was really nice!

6. Breastfeed Wes *at least* as long as I breastfed Izzy. I don't think that this one will be too hard. Wes is now 6 months old and I made it 7.5 months before Izzy decided she no longer wanted to nurse....so I don't have that long to go. Best case scenario I breastfeed until the end of winter. I would be okay with mostly formula feeding and then maybe nursing in the morning and at night as he gets closer to the age of 1. 

RESULT: Success! I was able to breastfeed Wes longer than I breastfed Izzy although my body stopped producing milk before I was ready to stop. 

7. Run in at least two races this year. I don't care the distance, but participating in races makes me more accountable with my running!

RESULT: Success! I ran in 4 races this year- three 5Ks and one 15K. I ran a total of 171.24 miles this year in 9 out of the 12 months of the year. My biggest month was October when I ran 37.68 miles (also the month that I ran the 15K).

I'm still mulling over my 2018 goals. What is your #1 2018 goal?